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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29882781">Bare Platform</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/GnomeIgnominious/pseuds/GnomeIgnominious'>GnomeIgnominious</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Scenes from a reconciliation [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Cabin Pressure</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Nail Polish, Strangers</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 08:47:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,155</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29882781</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/GnomeIgnominious/pseuds/GnomeIgnominious</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Verity meets Helena for the first time.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Scenes from a reconciliation [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2197014</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Bare Platform</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Verity manages to bag not only a table but a window seat on the train down from Manchester to Coventry and settles down with her laptop to do some work. It’s Saturday morning, so she doesn’t need to be working, but it’s dead time otherwise and she has a midweek deadline that really needs meeting.</p>
<p>The train fills up a bit after a couple of stops and a woman sits down in the vacant seat diagonally across from Verity at the table. She pulls out a laptop of her own and glances up.</p>
<p>“Oh, no one’s sitting here are they?” the woman asks.</p>
<p>“No, you’re fine,” Verity says, and goes back the script she’s editing.</p>
<p>After a few minutes, Verity can feel the woman looking at her. She glances up and the woman looks back down at her laptop, pretending like she hadn’t just been staring at Verity for thirty seconds.</p>
<p>Verity goes back to her work as well, frowning in concentration as she tries to find her place in the document on the screen. Another couple of minutes pass and she can feel the woman’s eyes on her again. This time Verity very deliberately looks up from her work and meets her stare. The woman blushes slightly and smiles apologetically.</p>
<p>“Sorry,” she says. “You seem very familiar. Have we met before somewhere?”</p>
<p>Verity looks at the woman properly. She’s in her late fifties, she guesses, tall, blonde and slender. She’s dressed smartly, for work, in the sort of understated way that screams money. Verity’s certain she’s never seen her before in her life. Weirdly, the only thing that seems familiar is her nail varnish, a very delicate light pink colour.</p>
<p>Verity shrugs apologetically and shakes her head. “I don’t think so.”</p>
<p>The woman is still looking at her. “This is going to sound strange,” she says. “But… do you know someone called Douglas Richardson?”</p>
<p>Of course. Dad. Was there any part of her life he didn’t touch? Verity only hopes this woman was a friend of his and not someone else he’d fallen out with. She schools her expression into something resembling neutrality.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” she says and tries a tight smile. “He’s my dad.”</p>
<p>“Oh, goodness!” The woman exclaims. “Then you must be Verity, is that right? I used to hear so much about you.”</p>
<p>Verity nods, and notes the past tense. Another person no longer in touch with Dad, then. That doesn’t really narrow the list of possibilities down. And also another person who apparently knows all about her, but about whom she knows nothing.</p>
<p>At her silence, the woman’s face settles into realisation. “Of course. He said that you didn’t speak. I’m Helena. We used to be married, your dad and I.”</p>
<p>Helena. So this was the third wife.</p>
<p>“Nice to meet you,” Verity says, and that’s not exactly a lie. She knows that Millie quite liked Helena.</p>
<p>“I can’t tell you how he is, I’m afraid,” Helena says. “We don’t speak all that often these days either. Though…” she smiles awkwardly. “Maybe you’re not all that interested in knowing anyway.”</p>
<p>“Oh,” Verity says. She does not want to rehash the whole ordeal of getting to know Dad again, even if Helena is not really a stranger. “Actually, we’re back in touch. About eighteen months, now.”</p>
<p>“Really? That’s wonderful,” and Helena smiles quite genuinely this time. “I’m glad. For both of you.”</p>
<p>“Thanks,” says Verity and wills the train faster along the tracks so she can escape the conversation.</p>
<p>“You can tell me how he’s doing, then,” Helena continues. “Is he still in Fitton? And at MJN?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” Verity says. “Though I think Martin’s looking for another job, so MJN might not be around much longer.”</p>
<p>“Martin – oh yes, Douglas’s captain.” Helena places a weird emphasis on the word “captain” as though it should mean something to Verity. “That’ll be a shame if MJN shuts down. I know your Dad enjoys working there. I can’t think of many companies that would facilitate his extra-curricular activities, either. Does he still get up to that sort of thing?”</p>
<p>“We don’t really talk about work,” Verity says, and that’s not a lie either. She’s heard enough half-garbled stories about fire engines and orchids and sugar bricks from Arthur, Millie and Martin to guess what Helena’s talking about. She’s never asked Dad outright about these things, and probably never will. She knows his chance of being employed anywhere else is basically zero, and if he does what he does to keep MJN afloat and his livelihood intact then she is really not going to think about it too hard.</p>
<p>Then, thank god, the tannoy announces that Coventry is the next stop, and Verity hurriedly packs away her laptop and pulls on her coat.</p>
<p>“This is my stop,” she says, unnecessarily.</p>
<p>“Coventry? Oh, are you going to Fitton? Well, say hello to your dad from me, won’t you?”</p>
<p>“Sure.” Verity escapes into the aisle. “It was…well, nice to have met you.”</p>
<p>“And you, Verity.”</p>
<p>Verity finally makes it off the train and into the cool outside air. She has ten minutes before the train to Fitton, and that journey thankfully passes uneventfully, uninterrupted by any of Dad’s other exes recognising her.</p>
<p>She walks the now familiar route from Fitton station to Dad’s house, and lets herself in with the key he’d given her a couple of months ago.</p>
<p>“Hi!” she calls into the house. Dad sticks his head round the kitchen door. He’s still in uniform and has presumably only just got in himself.</p>
<p>“Hi, darling. Good trip?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. And you?”</p>
<p>“Leeds-Bradford Airport is so beautiful at this time of year,” he says, mock seriously, and she rolls her eyes.</p>
<p>Verity sits down at the kitchen table as Dad potters around the kitchen, tidying up and putting away some shopping.</p>
<p>There’s no way she can’t tell him.</p>
<p>“I bumped into Helena on the train,” she says carefully, watching Dad. Verity isn’t sure how he will feel at the mention of Helena. From something Millie had said once Verity gathered he had been quite upset about their split.</p>
<p>“Really?” Dad’s expression is neutral, but Verity knows that Richardson trick all too well. The more interested you are, the less interested you have to look. “You’ve never met before, have you? How did you know who she was?”</p>
<p>“She recognised me. She sat down opposite me and asked if I knew anyone called Douglas Richardson. Apparently you and I look quite similar, but I don’t see it.” She quirks an eyebrow and Dad smiles, the tension broken.</p>
<p>“Anyway, she said to say hello.”</p>
<p>Dad nods thoughtfully. “Perhaps I’ll text her later. Did she seem all right?”</p>
<p>“Yeah. We didn’t talk for long.”</p>
<p>Dad pulls out his phone and that’s when Verity realises why Helena’s nail varnish seemed familiar.</p>
<p>It’s a little more worn away and chipped than Helena’s had been, but Dad is wearing the exact same shade.</p>
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